Vulpes is designed to replicate a family office structure and enable outside co-investment in a range of strategies that seek to produce real capital appreciation and/or income by concentrating on a small number of compelling investment opportunities. Our own capital anchors all investments facilitating pure alignment with outside investors
Artradis Fund Management was founded in 2002 by Richard Magides and Stephen Diggle.
Artradis launched the Barracuda fund, focusing on two kinds of activities in Asia; multiple asset class arbitrage trades, and core long volatility trade.
Despite low volatility, Artradis delivered positive, negatively correlated returns.
Low volatility and increasing market over-exuberance made us concerned about instability in markets. As a response, we launched a new, more aggressively long-volatility short-credit fund.
Artradis was well positioned for what was to come.
The effects of the 2008 crash reverberated around the financial world. The entire financial system was threatened with insolvency, culminating in September with the bankrupcy of Lehman Brothers.
Volatility and Artradis's fund's NAV soared.
Massive government bailouts staunched the financial collapse. Artradis was reaping the rewards of massively high volatility, and early 2009 saw significant redemptions from investors to shore up their positions elsewhere.
Artradis assets reached $5bn and, almost uniquely amongst such large funds, Artradis remained ungated, paying all investors on time and in full. For all the success Artradis had garnered, it was clear to us that the winds were beginning to change, and the "long vol short credit" trade was losing its viability.
In late 2010 Artradis closed and returned capital to investors, locking in profits of over $2.7bn. The long volatility trade had little merit in this new era of Government and Central Bank intervention in capital markets.
In 2011, Stephen Diggle set up Vulpes Investment Management, leveraging off the infrastructure and systems of the former Artradis platform. A number of key staff moved over with Steve, beginning investment across a range of sectors with founder’s capital anchoring all funds.
2012 was the time for many new beginnings - it saw initial investments in everything from British life science companies, to venture capital, to farms in New Zealand.
It was in 2012 that the Diggle Brothers dramatically expanded their investment in Oxford Biomedica.
We began investing in young, promising companies as part of the venture capital arm of our fund. We were early investors in Property Guru and Trax, primarily interested in the digital space.
In 2015, the Vulpes Life Sciences Fund was established. With a few notable investments in the field already under our belts, we felt more than ready to begin looking for new winners.
The Vulpes Agricultural Land Investment Company (VALIC) bought 166 hectares of farmland in the North of New Zealand, land well-suited to growing Kiwis and Avocados.
We also officially launched Stronghold German Real Estate with two portfolios, having proven our yield-driven strategy to be successful.
Swiss pharmacutical company Norvartis made a landmark deal with Oxford Biomedica, in which OXB would be the sole providor of lentiviral vectors, establishing OXB as a major player in the industry. This came five years after Vulpes's crucial investment.
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, we set up a special opportunities fund to provide funding to a variety of young companies who were trying to get off the ground when the pandemic struck.
A 12 month pandemic exposed the cracks in the corporate world, and reinforced to us the need for resilient and sustainable investing. With several notable new hires and all eyes on ESG, we began hunting for fresh investment opportunities.
Much has changed over the decade that Vulpes has been operating, and much is sure to change in the future. Vulpes is keeping a weather eye on the horizon, looking for new opportunities to grow.
Tap into Vulpes' wealth of experience and expertise.
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